https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55lx9r_qpr-vs-aston-villa-0-1-championship-all-goals-highlights-18-12-2016_sport
I have to say I really enjoyed that game as much as any I’ve watched in a while.
Okay, the quality wasn’t the best, but I felt the team did what I mostly want and that’s keep the pace up and try to entertain.
Unfortunately, it seems that keeping that pace up introduces more errors and we looked really poor early on, with simple passes being mislaid.
Fortunately, QPR’s quality is worse than ours and we won out in the end; a result that still keeps us in the promotion game.
Steve Bruce made several changes and my opinion says we looked better for them.
I’m going to concentrate on the pluses, as it’s alway easier to moan, isn’t it?
I know some of you don’t rate Bunn as any better than Gollini, but I have to massively disagree.
There were a few situations where Bunn commanded his area in a way I don’t believe Gollini would and I feel the defence trust him more.
Dare I say, I thought Hutton played well? That’s another one that many might disagree with, but for me, he simply did. Rangers certainly didn’t get much change out of him, but I should also point out that he had much better support, with Chester and Jedinak helping him out.
Chester? He was excellent along with Baker, who was a welcome return.
Amavi was very good, getting back for good defensive work, while also looking to get forward. I felt he faded somewhat in the second half, which wasn’t surprising, given his work-rate.
Jedinak, after a dodgy start, where all he seemed to do was give the ball away, got better and he really is a rock in covering the defence.
Adomah, I thought looked a threat and he also helps Hutton too.
Gardner didn’t do a fat lot, but he does provide more work than Westwood. This is the position we need to improve on, I’d say.
Bacuna looked like he deserves a run to me. I don’t think he was anything special, but he just offers more, especially over someone like Westwood.
McCormack? He was played out wide and it just doesn’t suit him, as he needs to be around the box more. He was again anonymous and as I’ve previously suggested, I don’t think he suits Bruce’s thinking.
Kodjia worked his socks and indeed his shirt off. He led the line and provided lots of movement. His penalty attempt was poor, but his hard work paid off and he got a thoroughly deserved goal.
Subs:
Gabby? I can only think that Bruce is trying to keep him in the shop window, with a view to getting rid. We all know he’s finished, after all. Who’s going to pay anywhere near his wages though?
Westwood was purely about fresh legs, surely. He offers nothing in attack and doesn’t help in defence in the last few minutes.
Gestede serves a purpose, but should he have done better in the one on one? I think so.
This game offered us a few things.
We won for the first time on Sky in ages.
We have another away win in the bag.
And it was an away clean sheet.
All in all, a very good day, where I believe we’re six points off the play-offs.
It’s all still to play for, which is no doubt a position we wouldn’t be in, if we were in the Prem. Well, not in a positive way, at least.
I’ll add the video as soon as I find it.
UTV!
I’m a very happy bunny 🙂
Only a few weeks ago you told me ud rather be a shit team in the Prem. Have you now come to realise we’re still only an average Championship club and this is the best place for us, all based on your last paragraph of course?
this league is crap,only get to see villa on sky as no streams
,thats 3 leeds norwich and qpr all awful games of football with us scoring 1 one goal and bar couple shots from edge the box codja bacuna today we are creating nothing
set pieces are a disaster what goes on training ground
the continuing use of gabby is shocking as is non use of young lads
apart from codja who chases and harries defenders
yes the win papers over the cracks but thats all
we need
right back
centre mid 2 jedi will soon be banned
winger
goalscorer
a big list
You don’t like Bruce do you, JVillan? 🙂
That’s fair enough.
I’m convinced playing Gabby is orders from Xia, so we can get rid.
The young lads are not what we require at this time, imo.
You’re right though, we have a big wishlist and still don’t create enough.
badger
yes i don t like bruce and no its not who he managed or where he played
,i think he is poor manager full stop,look at hull team he spent couple seasons with spent money on average players same at sunderland
the more he plays gabby less chance anyone else will take a chance on him did he touch the ball today,against norwich his only meanful touch gifted them their goal,has he had one shot on target in what 6 games now
Can’t agree that Bruce is a poor manager – certainly not in the Championship where his record stands for itself. He may not be every man’s cup of tea but frankly I didn’t see any other better candidate when he was appointed.
Where I can agree is his instance on playing Gabby although using him as a sub in the last 10 minutes makes a bit more sense than starting with him.
At least, today, we had more energy and played some reasonable football and didn’t allow the missed penalty to dent confidence. We are a long way from being a good side but we can hardly blame that on SB.
Brucey is a good championship manager so I haven’t a clue where he’s a poor manager comes from, I’m sure the bloke will get us promoted maybe at the second attempt. Ffs we won today & rightly so UTV
J Villan, sorry mate, I can’t agree with that.
He’s a pragmatic manager who gets promotions, better than anyone else.
As for poor signings, why is there talk of us being after Hernandez?
My opinion says he isn’t the best.
But he’s the best chance Villa have got at getting up.
And Sunderland are a basket case, same as we were. It’s not fair to bring them into it, imo.
I tend to overlook a lot of things when we win, as it’s all that matters, tbh.
Like I said I enjoyed the game and that’s a nice bonus.
i think the formation 442, really help us gain possession higher up and then we could get more crosses in. amavi put in a blinder of a cross first half. kodji was MOTM always offering himself, adomah was not far behind him, always taking his opponent on and beating him.
now the bad points, mccormack i thought this formation would bring the best out of him. how could somebody play alongside kodji and not benefit. but again he was almost invisible.
after we scored we make the big mistake of trying to close out the game, like it was only seconds from whistle, instead of continuing playing the way that got you there. but i can forgive them for this shows they wanted to win for themselves and fans.
good post badger, special thanxs to bill my technician, was a top reception no pauses or buffering with i was getting on the other way. nothing worse than a minute of buffering and when it returns you missed a goal
merry christmas villa fans :))
We have beaten another side below us in the table. However we have beaten only two above us, Reading and Fulham. I wouldn’t get optimistic about the play-offs until we can beat more play-off contenders.
Agreed OLL but it’s nice to be celebrating an away win which we deserved – 18 shots (7 on target) against 9(0) and 8 corners against 2.
Brum Mail making Baker MoM – I wouldn’t disagree; we have missed his commanding presence in defence.
Baker has really come in this season it’s just his injury record that’s poor. Amavi played well again but for me our player of the season so far has to be Chester he’s barely put a foot wrong
Video added and it makes it look like we battered them.
I can’t say it felt like that at the time.
The stats say we did that’ll do me
No we had the edge that’s all. Still I have to agree that it felt like a more solid performance and that’s good.
We shouldn’t kid ourselves that the squad as it stands will get us promotion but we’re not that far off and we can only hope that the January window is kind to us.
Still I must admit that this is the most optimistic I’ve felt around the Christmas period for some years.
Merry Christmas Villa fans!
If only we had shown up on Tuesday night I would be a happy bunny, we won and its a great feeling, but and a big but can we find that winning formula with higher in the league teams, i watched the scrum in the week who lost it on the last second of that game, and to be fair the football was good, its teams like that we have to beat, i still think a midfielder is priority, if you look at today’s game we got the ball up field more, the reason for Gabby was to get in the box, the reason for Gestede was the high balls, did it work ? I don’t think it did today,
I would be happy to think more from Bruce if he makes that his goal.
Totally agree Bill.
RB isn’t the major weak link and I’ve been saying it for a good while.
It’s the midfield that is by far our biggest weakness.
It’s the reason we don’t get the ball out wide enough, as we have to rely on the full backs too much.
We need a grafting central mid who can pass the bloody thing.
A Cowans, Cropley, Keane, Mortimer type player.
Basically anyone who’s a cut above the crap we have in there atm.
Or a scole , a player maker.
Flippin heck I’m agreeing with Badger yet again. I need a lie down 😄
Ha 🙂
It’s all about the result Giddy and we got it, simple.
Burton and Leeds at home next and I think that’s 6 points (crosses everything.)
Burton at the Villa. Just brilliant, imo.
I’m sure half their fans won’t know who to support.
Leeds will hammer us again if we put in put in anything like we have been
No they won’t.
Leeds didn’t hammer us on their turf, as well you know, so why would they hammer us at home?
I really find this dislike of Bruce quite strange.
So not every Villa fan is a fan of SB – fair enough as everyone is entitled to their view – but at least show a bit of objectivity after all we all support Villa and want them to succeed. Best chance of that at the moment, whether you like him or not, is SB.
Agree we are nowhere near the finished article but the club has been run into the ground for years. We are still miles away from even a team like Bournemouth in the prem but at least we are better than last season. The midfield is where a huge improvement needs to be made and once Bruce has sorted that out we can build ourselves up again. Another season rebuilding in this division may be a blessing in disguise imo
Never once said I dislike Bruce. I’ll give him a fair crack and he rarely starts Westwood, which I like a lot!! Ok maybe they never battered us in scoreline but they were by far the better side and more organised and thoroughly deserved the win.
We’ll be lucky to put 1 goal last Burton fgs!!
I didn’t see the Leeds game but the neutrals I’ve spoken to said we were the better side until Gollini’s mistake knocked us back.
Agree with Badger. We were better than Leeds until Gollini made that mistake.
I think the team that played today are better than the one who played Leeds so I’m with Badger and think that 3 points are more than possible
No chance we were better than Leeds.
Well we’ll have to disagree, won’t we? 🙂
It’s all about opinions and mine says they didn’t outplay us to any extent.
We played one of the worst sides in the league and we’re cheering about shots stats. Embarrassing.
This team we have is shite and I hope Brucie can fill the many gaps within it come January.
We have probably one of the best strikers in the league, at least in previous seasons in McCormack and we have absolutely no idea how to utilise him as we have almost zero creativity. So we just sling him wide where he’ll do jack shit.
Please Steve, buy a proper pacey, hard working winger and some central creative midfielders or we’re doomed!!!
Great – so now we have good stats they are worthless yet last season many were parading our stats to demonstrate how poor we were. Nobody is saying we have a great or even good team but the point is we deserved to win today.
Badger does, every week in his pre game write up he expects a win
Oohaah have you changed your name? :-))
No it’s still me but I saw a lot of positives today and fed up that some posters on here are moaning because we didn’t win 5.0. This is a ground we’ve only once on in 25 years or so we rarely get anything here yet Sone fans are still moaning. This was a game we were expected to lose
18 shots with only 1 goal is NOT a good stat. Either we were easy to defend and were restricted to long shots or our finishing/strikers are awful!!!!!!
Take your pick
The only stat we should be interested in is did we score one more goal than the opposition? If we did then it was a good performance.
Oh behave Utd had 36 shots v Burnley and only drew 1.1 recently. At least we are making chances. Yes our finishing needs to be better but even teams like Chelsea who will probably win the league are only just scrapping 1.0 wins again lower opposition.
Just to relay the doubting, I’m a Bruce fan. Helenius correct its a must, but when we hear what heard this week two loans, and no immediate buying what are we to think.
I think we should of lost today that might of cheered some of them up on here today
Giddy, we all have our point of view and are free to express it honestly – that’s what makes this such a great blog. We can all be negative and how after the Norwich game but with some justification. What I find frustrating sometimes is a lack of objectivity.
I watched the game with my grandson and we won – it was a great experience. No, we weren’t brilliant and Bruce admitted as much but we got stuck in and that counts for a lot in this league. Win ugly or lose playing lovely tippy tally football – I know which I prefer
@H60 Sorry but I don’t buy it.
How can any real fan be unhappy with an away win and a clean sheet? Don’t care what league you’re in or who you’re playing that’s a result.
Pat – that’s the point I was trying to make. Be happy with the win but that doesn’t mean everything is OK. An objective view of where we can improve is a good basis for debate but this blind negativity like – we won because they were crap and we only won by one goal when we should have buried them – really winds me up!
Sorry H60 that was actually meant for Helenius – fat fingers!
Np mate 🙂
Of course everything isn’t ok we all know that but today was a good win away for us and a game we traditionally lose even when we’ve had decent sides. The midfield is pathetic but Bruce can’t do anything till Jan so we should all be grateful he’s got us within range of top 6
We didn’t deserve to lose we were the better team. Qpr never really looked like scoring once until the last 5 mins
I’m happy with the 3 points, of course, but not happy at all on recent performances.
I work with a QPR fan and he’s over the moon they only conceded once. That speaks volumes on how crap they are…. And how poor we are too.
Blimey, Helenius, I really have to wonder what you want?
Ok, QPR are no great shakes, but neither were Norwich on recent form and we lost that one.
I agree, today, we weren’t brilliant.
But we won.
And I’ll take that from now until the end of the season, if it’s what’s required.
I don’t think anyone says we’re going to take anything by storm, but if we can keep eeking wins while we wait for improvements, I think we’ll be ok.
Surely we have to be positive as we won today (away on Sky) and that’s the best you can do?
No it should of been at least 6today anything less then we’re utterly shite
badger
a reply to earlier about bruce you mentioned signing hernandez why bruce has got 3 strikers proven in this league rudi codja and mccormak and we only averaging a goal a game,he also linked with another young inexperienced keeper we only have 3 of them sarkic gollina and steer
if bruce is any good he will rebuild entire midfield plus get a centre half on loan because baker will only manage 6/8games at a time
then we will see how good bruce is
JVillan,
I don’t know who Bruce is going to sign.
The Hernandez link was just to show that Bruce doesn’t always sign rubbish, which you suggested.
I’ve said I think Bruce doesn’t rate McCormack (and indeed think I was the first to suggest it) and I’ve also been consistent in saying that we should concentrate on mids over any other area.
I’m also pretty sure he doesn’t rate Gollini either.
So I do agree with you.
But surely you can’t judge Bruce on who he’ll sign just in this window?
We already know we’re not going to be able to push the boat out because of FPP. And we have to get rid of some first.
Unfortunately there won’t be a midfield overhaul.
badger
for me we should use the loan system now ,plenty half decent players not getting a game
For once I agree badger. Bruce must be judged on who he brings in in the summer. If he doesn’t get a couple of decent midfielders in for Jan then we won’t finish top 6 simple as that. So expect another year at least in this division. Though at least we won’t go down.
Plus Hernandez would want to be first choice and he won’t. be when Kodja is back
This wasn’t a bad performance today there were times in the second half where we looked a lot better than them. And let’s face it how often in the past 5 years have we actually put in a good performance. The only one I can think of was our win v Liverpool in fa cup semi best we’ve played for years
Not many teams go to Brighton & outplay them OK we drew but should of won it. That was recent
Just to give some perspective –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3372006/Leicester-Aston-Villa-Premier-League-Christmas-Day-sides-fared-places.html
Last Christmas (23rd December 2015) –
‘Aston Villa are rooted to the bottom of the standings with only seven points’
I know its a league lower but surely being 24 points better off than this time last year should make us all feel a little more optimistic?
1998-99
FIRST: Aston Villa, 36 points
LAST: Nottingham Forest, 12 points.
END OF THE SEASON: Aston Villa 6th, 55 points. Nottingham Forest last, 30 points.
Aston Villa were first in the Premier League at Christmas in 1998 but ended the season in sixth
Ah Bill those were the days. Hope I live to see them back again at VP
A bit surprised about some of the negativity starting up on here again; OK so we’ve had a few non-spectacular games in the last couple of weeks, but as far as I’m concerned today we won -away from home- and from the commentary I was listening to on the radio it could/should have been by a few more goals.
After the first few weeks of the season we all realised that this team wasn’t going to walk to the title, and IMO so far Bruce has done pretty well considering that this is a squad that he inherited. Easy to pick holes in any performance, but I’m still more than happy to believe that we will make the play-off places.
Keep the faith – UTV
I agree even I’m positive about today. People don’t realise this a rubbish ground for us the best of times. We’ve only one once in there in past 25 years or so so to get a win is a good result for us.
Got to remember when any team play us it’s like a cup final for them so they’re performances always raise a little even if they’re bottom of the table. Were in the top 4 for goals conceded and the bottom 4 for goals scored that’s the issue and it needs sorting in January. Even though I don’t like Hutton defensively were pretty good. Midfield is key like has been mentioned by everyone! Sort that out and I reckon we can go on a long winning run. I am surprised Andre Green hasn’t had a chance this year??
We all know midfield is crap but nothing Bruce can do about it till Jan. We need at least 2 quality midfielders. Having said that I still don’t understand why Tishbola isn’t in the running. He seems a decent player and it’s not like we’ve anyone better. It has to be a personal thing with him and Bruce
Oohah – think all of us are wondering about Tish – particularly after the second half against Newcastle. I don’t think Bruce does personal (in the sense you mean it) – he’s too driven regarding success ofvthe team he manages.
Bruce isn’t bringing in any youngsters and we have to remember that Tish has only ever played a handful of games in the Championship. I suspect he feels we aren’t yet strong enough or confident enough for youngsters to get a fair chance.
Let’s see what later in the season brings.
I totally agree Oohah.
I’d put Tshibola in before Gardner or Westwood from what I’ve seen of him and it’s very strange that he’s not getting a game.
I suspect personal problems, as in maybe homesick or something?
There’s got to be a major reason and Bruce doesn’t strike me as the sort who gets the hump as long as you’re doing the job.
Similar thoughts to me Hitch, in that I don’t think it’s a dislike thing.
Badger; I think he was bought as one for the future. If I remember correctly he only ever played around 12 times for Reading in the Championship before joining us in the summer – so he’s very inexperienced. However, I would like to see him on the bench more regularly with a chance to come on second half.
i can remember a certain ron atkinson putting a young fenton into a cup final ,
if bruce thinks westwood is better option same with gabby and anyone else i rest my case on bruce we will be in this league for the future the financial side will kill the doc we have one shot at getting up
oohah
yes a win is a win but the last 4 ,3 on sky 2 goals against bottom 3 sides awful performances leeds at home is going to be the big for me we have to beat burton nothing else will do
That was a cracking goal! One tight angle…